CASE STUDY: OPEN STREETS
What do you reckon the chances are of closing roads to cars outside busy metro primary schools, at peak drop off and pick up times? And with strong community support?
Well, that’s exactly what Merri-bek Council and five Melbourne primary schools are doing on a regular basis. As always, it’s not just what you do but how you do it that matters.
We spoke with Zoe McMaster, Merri-bek’s Sustainability Behaviour Change Lead, to learn more about how Council and partners achieved this mean feat and how our guidance and training helped.
What are ‘open streets’?
Open Streets are streets open to people walking, bike riding, scooting and playing – free of car traffic.
They were initiated by Merri-bek Council and Bicycle Network in 2021. Since then, ten Merri-bek schools have run at least one Open Street, with five running them monthly or quarterly. Open Streets are increasingly community-led, with parents donning high-vis vests to set up the road signs and liaise with drivers.
Positive outcomes
School staff, families and children themselves have shared with Zoe the many reasons they value Open Streets:“Not surprisingly, many more kids walk, scoot, or ride a bike to school on Open Street days but now up to 20% more kids do on other days too. It’s a great opportunity for parents, staff and local residents to meet up and have a chat. Staff and parents alike love seeing the kids so excited about coming to school – they’ve noticed more on-time attendance on Open Streets days!”
How did Common Cause help?
Merri-bek’s sustainability and transport teams were first introduced to values and frames through the Framing Walking and Bike Riding message guide we developed with and for VicHealth and partners.
The guide provided:
· The core concept of “streets for everyone”
· An associated language shift, from “roads closed” to “open streets”. While Merri-bek Council and Bicycle Network had already named the initiative ‘Open Streets’ based on overseas examples, Common Cause’s research with Australian audiences demonstrated the effectiveness of this language shift in boosting public support.
Common Cause then ran a workshop to skill up key sustainability and transport staff in Merri-bek so that everyone involved understood the values and principles behind “streets for everyone” and Open Streets.
We also provided ad hoc advice on engagement materials, such as flyers for local residents (see extracts below). The significant shift in approach helped build more community support and participation in Open Streets.
Lessons learnt
Values run much deeper than just messaging: they informed the way Merri-bek went about enabling Open Streets, withcommunity. As shared in this video, parents have come on board as willing volunteers to make Open Streets happen.
“What makes Open Streets work so well is the community ownership. There’s a beautiful virtuous circle whereby school staff and parents say yes to a trial, they experience the joy and freedom of Open Streets, and then advocate for Open Streets to be ongoing and invite more parents to be involved – so it becomes self-perpetuating.” – Zoe McMaster, Merri-bek Council
Here are Zoe’s key takeaways if you’re considering doing something similar:
· Start small (we started with two schools), learn from early mistakes and then scale up.
· Make it all about people, not transport, traffic or some other technical topic.
· Have early visioning conversations with the communities you’re working with. In our case, this meant helping people make the links between things they value – happy healthy kids, safer streets, friendlier neighbourhoods – and Open Streets that help deliver these things.
· Encourage keen locals such as parents and school staff to become community champions, i.e. spokespeople and organisers. This helps build and sustain support both within your organisation and the broader community.
· Point to precedents. If you’re considering an initiative like Open Streets, point to our example as proof of concept – it works and people love it!